We interviewed Dappled Cities, who will be headlining NGV Friday Nights at NGV International on Friday 2 December 2016.
Your music has been described as full of big gestures and sweeping melodies, how would you describe your sound?
That’s pretty accurate. Maybe with the addition of blazing riffs and sweet sweet harmonies.
How have your gigs changed over the last ten years?
They’ve gotten louder. We keep turning it up – maybe it’s a reaction to all the backing track stuff out there but we really want to blow People’s faces off
Where did your creative inspiration come from for your latest record?
A lot of the work was inspired by touring and being on the road. So there’s a lot of landscapey kind of tracks on there. But also we always look inwards, so inspiration is a deeply personal thing for each track, making it always hard to summarise.
If your music was an artwork what would it look like?
Tintoretto’s Paradise but with all the people’s faces replaced by cute bunny faces.
Do you have a favourite artist/
Impossible. But the most recent work by Nick Cave (not the singer) (‘herd’) was pretty exciting and joyous. My mum (Marguerite Derricourt) is also damn good.
What’s your favourite gig you have played to date?
I’ve always loved the whole SXSW vibe in Texas. Days of playing gigs one after the other so they all meld and feel like one big gig
What inspires/influences your music the most?
Loneliness. It’s hard writing a song when you’re happy and buzzed and hanging out with all sorts of people. So isolation is the biggest inspiration.
What song do you wish you wrote?
Us and Them – Pink Floyd
What part of making music excites you the most?
Recently it’s been singing in harmony. We’ve never really done that before and it’s all over the new record. But the live shows are always the best.
What is your favourite part of being involved in Friday Nights at NGV?
The free artwork. We get to take an artwork home, right?
What can someone expect from your live show?
A midnight pash
Tell us about the last song you created?
A 50s’ish song about a man doing the jitterbug with his friend’s wife.
What are you working on now?
New solo tracks for my next Swimwear record (my side project) and a bunch of math rocky style Dappled tracks
Viktor&Rolf once said “At the start of our career, the art world showed a lot more interest in our work than the fashion world did…. in museums we were simply making what we imagined in our minds and the response came from the art world”. What is the most surprising response you’ve had to your work?
Tough one. Maybe the most surprising fact about our band is that we aren’t as big as Coldplay. I mean, we have voices of angels and wear coats and stuff. Where did we go wrong!